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NESTING-SERIES OF BRITISH BIRDS. Te 
No. 58. GRASSHOPPER-WARBLER. (Locustella nevia.) 
? owes its trivial names to 
This Warbler, also known as the “ Reeler,’ 
a rapid trilling song, which somewhat resembles the chirping of the 
Grasshopper. It arrives from the south about the middle of April, 
departing in September, and between those months is found in suitable 
localities throughout Great Britain and Ireland, and in gradually 
diminishing numbers towards the north of Scotland. Fens, commons, 
thick hedge-rows, and small copses are its favourite haunts, but owing 
to its skulking habits it is rarely seen, and thus often supposed to be 
rarer than is really the case. The nest is placed on the ground, and 
well hidden among thick herbage. It is approached by one or more 
mouse-like runs, often of considerable length, and along these the bird, 
when alarmed, creeps back to her eggs. These are from five to seven 
in number, pale pinkish-white, thickly speckled and zoned with darker 
reddish-brown. 
Hampshire, June. 
Presented by Dr. J. E. Kelso & Lieut. F. Hodge, R.N. 
No. 59. TREE-CREEPER. (Certhia familiaris.) 
This resident species is common, and generally distributed throughout 
the British Islands. Its long curved claws and stiff-pointed tail- 
feathers enable it to ascend the trunks and branches of trees with ease 
and rapidity, as it searches for the spiders and other insects on which it 
principally feeds. The nest, made of roots, grass, and moss, and lined 
with wool, feathers, ete., is usually concealed in a crevice under partially 
detached bark, or in a cleft in the bole of a tree; but sometimes it is 
placed under the eaves of a shed or dwelling, or in some other suitable 
situation. From six to nine white eggs, spotted with light red and 
pale lavender, are laid in the end of April. Two broods are reared in 
the season. 
1. Norfolk, June. 
Presented by Lord Walsingham. 
2. Hampshire, May. 
Presented by Sir Edward Shelley, Bart. 
No. 60. NUTHATCH. (Sitta cisia,) 
A common resident in the southern and central districts of England 
and in parts of Wales, but rare towards the north, and only met with 
